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The director of Palm Springs International Airport urged travelers to check their flights in light of the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max airplanes, with two such flights scrubbed from the desert airfield Wednesday.

According to the FlightAware website, there were six flight cancellations at Palm Springs airport as of early afternoon Wednesday, but only two of them were Boeing Max flights — both operated by Air Canada and bound for Vancouver and Calgary.

"We only have about 4 percent of flights, as we look at March, that are potentially affected by the FAA's decision to ground the aircraft until they investigate further the issues," Palm Springs International Airport Executive Director Thomas Nolan told City News Service.

"What's really important is passengers will be asking themselves, what do I do? They should contact their respective airlines if they're concerned,'' Nolan said. "Or, better yet, wait for the airlines. They are very good at massive snow storms and network issues.''

Air Canada and West Jet are the only two airlines that were affected by the emergency order at Palm Springs International, according to Nolan.

The grounding of the 737 Max airliners was announced Wednesday by President Donald Trump, and later confirmed by the Federal Aviation Administration. The move comes following two major disasters — Sunday's Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed 157 people and an October Lion Air crash in Indonesia that killed 189 people.

"The agency made this decision as a result of the data-gathering
process and new evidence collected at the (Ethiopian crash) site and analyzed
today,'' according to the FAA.

"This evidence, together with newly refined satellite data available to the FAA this morning, led to this decision. The grounding will remain in effect pending further investigation, including examination of information from the aircraft's flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders. An FAA team is in Ethiopia assisting the (National Transportation Safety Board) as parties to the investigation of the Flight 302
accident. The agency will continue to investigate.''

MIAMI, FLORIDA - MARCH 13: An American Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 is seen as it pulls into its gate after arriving at the Miami International Airport from LaGuardia Airport on March 13, 2019 in Miami, Florida. American Airlines is reported to say that it will ground its fleet of 24 Boeing 737 Max planes and it plans to rebook passengers after the Federal Aviation Administration grounded the entire United States Boeing 737 MAX fleet. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)(Photo: Joe Raedle, Getty Images)

American Airlines, which operates 24 of the aircraft, issued a statement saying it will continue to coordinate with federal authorities and work to minimize disruptions to its schedule.

"Our teams will be working to re-book customers as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience,'' according to American.

Southwest Airlines also said it was complying with the FAA's directive and removing its 34 Max aircraft from service. The airline noted that the Max jets account for less than 5 percent of its daily flights.

"While we remain confident in the Max 8 after completing more than 88,000 flight hours accrued over 41,000 flights, we support the actions of the FAA and other regulatory agencies and governments across the globe that have asked for further review of the data -- including information from the flight data recorder — related to the recent accident involving the MAX 8,'' according to Southwest.

"The safety of our customers and employees is our uncompromising priority, and today's action reflects the commitment to supporting the current investigations and regulatory concerns.''

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The Palm Springs International Airport saw two of its flights cancelled after the FAA announcement.(Photo: The Desert Sun file photo)

Southwest officials said the airline would use "every available aircraft'' to minimize disruptions to its schedule. Customers on affected Max flights were being given the chance to change their flights without incurring any additional fees.

Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing president/CEO, said the company supported
the FAA's decision "out of an abundance of caution.''

"Safety is a core value at Boeing for as long as we have been building airplanes and it always will be,'' he said. "There is no greater priority for our company and our industry. We are doing everything we can to understand the cause of the accidents in partnership with the investigators, deploy safety enhancements and help ensure this does not happen again.''

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When you go the airport, you're probably used to being around a lot of people. But which airports have the most passenger traffic? New data from the Airports Council International, published Sept. 16, shows these are busiest airports in the world by total passenger traffic. Click through the gallery to see which airports made the list. baona, Getty Images